A customer arrived at the door this time last year with a sorry tale to tell and a best quality sidelock in need of a new stock. Invited to attend his usual driven grouse day at the beginning of the season, he strode out across the moor towards his butt, his gun in its slip on his shoulder, his heart beating with anticipation. That first drive went well, he shot straight and killed his birds. It was only when he stepped out of his butt and shouldered his slipped gun for the walk back to the vehicles that it all went horribly wrong.
The old gun-slip that had resided on a hook in the gun-room, year-round, for season after season, had finally perished beyond its ability to hold the weight of a shotgun. As he pulled the strap over his shoulder it broke, the gun swinging downwards and connecting with an inconveniently placed rock, snapping the stock at the wrist.
For want of a small upgrade in his field leather, he now faced a bill of several thousands of pounds and the prospect of a season without his number one gun. While he awaited the return of his gun and wrote a letter to his insurance company, his mind turned to the matter of protecting his guns from future such travails. A new gun slip was in order.
This story may be at the more catastrophic end of the genre but it is not unusual. It would surprise many to see the extent to which some sportsmen with very valuable guns and rifles fail to protect them in the quest to save a few hundred pounds on good gun slips. A best gun bouncing around in a plastic bin on a gun bus, clattering a dozen others adjacent, is a recipe for dents and bruises if it is encased in a low-quality, low-protection, cheap gun-slip.
Of course, Westley Richards offers a solution. Our hand-cut, hand-stitched leather and canvas gun-slips are made in Birmingham from the very best hides, fleeces and fabrics and they provide the perfect environment for your guns on a shoot day. A great deal of care is taken to get the right balance between weight, rigidity, cushioning and comfort. Westley Richards slips are not inexpensive but one will last your lifetime and probably serve your son or daughter once you have departed for the great grouse butt in the sky.
Even our best, most expensive gun-slip can be had for a fraction of the cost involved in re-stocking a decent shotgun. Maybe it is time to get those old-faithfulls out and to have a serious think; are they actually still up to the job of protecting your guns? While a slip may seem to be a relatively simple object, we offer a surprising range of permutations, with no fewer than twenty-one options of rifle slip and eleven for the shotgun.
Shotgun slips start at £795 for a best canvas and leather, Deeley, fleece-lined slip with full-length zip. Opting for a bespoke-made, genuine African Cape buffalo leather Deeley Slip, tailored for your shotgun’s exact dimensions, will push the price up to £1,095. For double-gun days our pair of connected Deeley slips in best cow-hide provide the ideal solution to carrying your guns to the butt or peg fully protected. For convenience, they can be un-buckled to use individually.
For travel, the Eastman Takedown slip perfectly protects your take-down rifle, double rifle or shotgun in a dis-assembled state, enabling it to be carried at half the length of an assembled firearm.
The Anson & Perfecta Cartridge Bags
The perfect accompaniment to our slips are the cartridge bags we also hand-craft in Birmingham. Made to last two lifetimes, they take three forms: classic, modern and speed-load. The grandfather of the three designs is the seventy-five capacity Perfecta Bag, based on the Payne-Galway pattern cartridge bags that first found favour in the late Victorian era. This is, essentially, the same Westley Richards cartridge bag featured in our catalogues of the 1890s.
The Perfecta, available in dark or light tan best cow-hide, has stood the test of time and is the ideal companion for your English side-by-side. It is the choice of the traditionalist. For a more contemporary style, and a 100-round capacity, the Anson Cartridge bag with its hinged lid, is ideal for fast solo-loading and it will sit open on the ground, providing easy access to your ammunition.
For super-fast cartridge access and ideal for a loader servicing a double-gun day, the Anson Express Bag carries 150 cartridges with provision for fifty more in the loading pockets. These bags are available in a range of colours and leathers, with premium brass hardware and construction integrity that is second to none.
Many sportsmen find loading from a belt faster and more convenient than from a bag, especially when walking. A belt distributes the weight evenly and presents each cartridge in the ideal position, ready for loading. Even those using a bag for most of their shooting find a belt useful for those occasions when nothing else will do the job quite as well. Walking-up grouse in shirtsleeves on a hot, early September, afternoon being a classic example.
We offer a lightweight canvas version and a premium cow-hide version of our Westley Richards cartridge belt, available in any shotgun gauge to order or in 12-bore and 20-bore from stock. Crafted by hand in our Pritchett Street factory, we use a robust but beautifully tanned leather for the belt and a much thinner cut for the loops, with a stop on the base to ensure each cartridge is perfectly presented for easy extraction.
Hand cut, hand-stitched, with premium brass hardware. These belts are, without doubt, the best on the market and remarkably reasonably priced; with the canvas and leather lightweight version at £215 and the full leather one at £295. Whatever the occasion, Westley Richards is the obvious destination for heritage quality sporting leather.
A game bag was once considered an essential piece of equipment for a day out with a gun. When walking-up game, it slings over the shoulder, with its wide canvas strap carrying the load comfortably and the bag hanging out of the way on the back of the hip, leaving arms free to shoot and weight optimally placed for long walks. Our Scotch Bag is a modern version of the game bag we featured in the 1912 catalogue.
It features the very best vegetable-tanned leather straps and edging, with best canvas panels and shoulder strap and hand-woven hemp netting. The net pocket enables shot game to cool in the air as it is carried, rather than sweating in a sealed pocket. In addition, it has four loops for hanging shot game, maximising the cooling opportunity.
Internally, it has one large pocket for essentials, such as a water bottle, sandwiches, phone, ear plugs, cigars etc or simply for carrying more game off the moor. As useful today as it was in 1912, the Scotch Bag is a timeless classic which has somehow become beloved of stylish office workers and college girls, who have been seen using it as a satchel for everyday use everywhere from London to Tokyo.
All our leather goods can be initialled with black, blind or gold lettering. Discover the range here.
Westley Richards has been outfitting its clients with timeless fine leather goods for as long as it has been building custom rifles and bespoke guns for them. Whether it be a heirloom quality gun slip to carry your droplock shotgun to the peg or an exhibition-grade gun case to store your prized double barrel rifle, Westley Richards sporting leather goods has you covered. Made in our leather factory in Birmingham side by side with the gunmaking, the company offers a range of leather hunting and shooting accessories, including ammo wallets, gun slips, rifle slings, cartridge bags, Sam Brown belt, cartridge belts, gun cleaning kits, shooting gloves and hip flasks. The ideal partner for our high quality safari wear and country clothing.
